A Bad Weekend For Pussycats

No humor in my post today.

Nothing uplifting.

Only tragedy.

Tragedy for cats.

Mrs. Morris died suddenly on Saturday.

My son Donald and his wife wrote poignant tributes to this cat in their blogs. Donald’s blog is at http://www.rdex.net/blog/ Helen’s blog , along with photos of Mrs. Morris, is at http://www.elemental.name/pai/ .

Their blog entries show that Mrs. Morris was a well-loved cat (and the photos prove that she was in no danger of starving).

The tragedy really upset Donald and Helen.

Mrs. Morris was not the only cat to die over Easter weekend.

Early Saturday morning fire broke out at the Jacksonville Humane Society. The facility sheltered over 200 cats and dogs at the time — plus a few exotic animals, rabbits, parrots .ferrets, etc.

Over 70 Jacksonville firefighters responded to the alarm.

When the roof of the building collapsed, four firemen were injured; one remains hospitalized with serious burns.

The firefighters risked their lives to save as many animals as possible; yet more than 70 cats and many dogs burned to death still locked in their cages.

Adding to the tragedy was the fact that some animals, once rescued, became so frightened by the smoke, flames, noise, and confusion, they sought safest in the most familiar place of safety they knew — they ran back to their cages inside the burning buildings.

Because the fire destroyed Humane Society offices and records, no one is sure how many animals died in the blaze. And because of the location of the flames, practically all the cats housed by the society died. More dogs were saved than cats because the dog kennels were located toward the back of the building.

Since the fire, many citizens of Jacksonville have put in to adopt animals from temporary shelters and have contributed large amounts of cash for the care of the animals and for the rebuilding of the Humane Society.

But sometimes cash and caring is not enough:

Last night our youngest daughter came home from Gainesville upset about one of her kittens, a stray that’s taken up around her apartment building.

As Patricia was leaving for work at her new job, as she walked to her car, she noticed the kitten had passed out on her balcony. The cat lay in such a way that rain poured from the roof overhand onto its head but it was in such sad shape that it could not move out of the rain.

Patricia gathered the cat up and wrapped it in a blanket.

The cat showed its gratitude by pissing on her new work outfit.

Patricia asked her neighbor, Greg, to watch over the cat as she drove away trying to avoid being late on this, her 6^th day on her new job.

She and Greg, who both have a lot of experience with cats, think that this kitten is showing symptoms of feline leukemia.

The prognosis is not good.

I am not exactly a cat person, but my heart aches for people whose pets enliven their lives so much. And I’m at a loss as to how to comfort them.

The only thought that occurs to me is that in the Kingdom of God, where the lion will lay down with the lamb, perhaps the lion is not the only cat on the scene, I could not prove it by Scripture, but I imagine the Lord has room for other, smaller, cats too.

Nevertheless, it’s been a bad weekend for pussycats.